Advocacy and mass education in plastic surgery: Efforts and outcomes

ABSTRACT

Background: Awareness of plastic surgery is lacking. Be it reconstructive surgery, or aesthetic surgery, public education and awareness regarding the spectrum is the need of the hour. Materials and Methods: We undertook a string of activities for patient awareness and education for burn prevention, occupational hand injuries prevention, skin banking awareness and various other conditions relevant to us as plastic surgeons. Use of social media helped us for increasing the reach of our projects. Observation and Results: Some of the projects we started, we are still pursuing with sincerity, and some never really picked up. A wide range and spectrum of activities were undertaken, and we would like to think that we have made some impact towards advocacy of plastic surgery; however, the measurable impact of these initiatives is questionable. Conclusion: Collective efforts for promotion of the speciality using innovative methods, use of celebrities for awareness and social media amongst other things must be undertaken to make a sustained and demonstrable impact towards advocacy of plastic surgery.

KEY WORDS

Advocacy and mass education in plastic surgery - burn prevention - occupational hand injuries - skin banking - undergraduate plastic surgery

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